Anti-shoreline regulations lawsuit filed
by Ken Short

Sunday, January 21, 2001 - PORT ANGELES -- Clallam County commissioners are reviewing a request to join a class action lawsuit against tough new state Department of Ecology shoreline regulations issued last month.

The pending lawsuit, launched by a conglomerate of Washington Realtors and business interests, in part attempts to stop Ecology from issuing new rules without providing the cash to implement them.
Commissioners are waiting for legal advice from their lawyer, but one board member said the edict, called an unfunded mandate, drains county coffers.

The new Ecology rules require Clallam to rewrite some of its Shoreline Master Plan regulations -- affecting landowners who live along Clallam's 200 miles of shoreline.

Commissioner Chairman Mike Doherty, D-Port Angeles, said the county has had to pay for 16 unfunded mandates in the past several years.